The Trap
by Coolio Santos
Summary: The Animorphs and Anthony go on a dangerous plight to stop the Yeerks from going one step further into the invasion of Earth. Please review!!!! I'm only 12 and it's my first fic, so don't insult me about it!! Constructive critisicism please!!


This story is dedicated to Grace Clinkard and Jack Thompson.  
  
ANIMORPHS   
  
  
  
  
The Trap  
  
  
Chapter 1   
  
My name is Anthony. If you haven't read the last couple of books then you won't know me, so don't worry by thinking you've picked up the wrong book. I would love to tell you my last name, but I can't. I would love to tell you my telephone number, but I can't. I would love to tell you where I live and what my favourite soccer team is and who my best friends are and what school I go to...but I can't. You see, if I did, it would be the end of me, the end of my friends and relatives, even the end of the human race. Why? Because of an alien race called the Yeerks. That's right. Aliens. There are others too, but first let me tell you about the Yeerks. Yeerks are parasites. They live in other species bodies. For example: Take a normal man who lives in an ordinary house. He controls his body, he moves his eyes where he wants them to go, and he moves his legs and arms where he wants them to go. That is until the Yeerks come along. In it's grey slug-like body, it pushes itself through his ear and into his head. Then it wraps around his brain like a blanket and reads his mind like a book. Then, it takes complete control of the man's body. Moving the man's eyes, arms, legs, and speaking through the man's mouth. The man can do nothing but watch as the Yeerk controls his body. This man is now called a controller. Yeerks have not only done this to humans, they've done it to a species called the Hork-Bajir, they've done it to the Taxxons too, although they were actually willing to let themselves be controllers!! How sick is that! Even some humans are willing to let themselves be controlled! They've also done it to the Gedds, the Sstram, the Mak and a few Leerans too. There are only three species left in the known galaxy, and one of them is the Andalites, the main rivals of the Yeerks. One Andalite, Prince Elfangor, who was murdered the same night by one of the leaders of the Yeerks, the evil Visser 3, was the Andalite that gave my five friends the power to morph. To change into any animal by just touching it and concentrating on it, acquiring its D.N.A pattern. That is the power that we've got to fight the Yeerks. Five friends and one Andalite that is, my friends found him at the bottom of the sea in his dome ship a couple of months earlier. Two of my friends that fight the Yeerks with me are Jake and Marco. Marco lives in a nice apartment, which is where this story starts. Jake and I were staying for the night at Marco's.  
" There hasn't been a mission for about three weeks now, do you think the Yeerks are up to something?" I wondered aloud  
" Could be." Marco was more interested in his new Playstation game and that meant he didn't pay that much attention to what Jake and I were saying.  
" I don't know, maybe they're just concentrating on getting more controllers," Jake said.  
" Also, I was wondering if the Yeerks are just concentrating on getting controllers in this country or do they have controllers all over the world?" I asked  
"They're probably going from country to country, starting with the most powerful one, and finishing with the smallest, most unimportant country or continent." Jake replied  
" Oh I see, so you're saying this country is more important than the country I live in?" I said  
" Yes," Jake and Marco said at the same time. You see, I live in a different country from my alien fighting friends and they think the country they live in is more important than the one I live in.  
" Yeah, sure" I replied with sarcasm  
" When are you going back?" Marco asked  
" The last week of the summer holidays" I answered. Because I live in a different country, I don't get to see them much. But I go over there every summer, winter and Easter school holiday. Sometimes I tell my mum and dad I'm going out with friends, and Tobias comes over in dolphin morph and shows me the way across the sea to their country, using some boat trips on the way because he knows where to go, I do this as much as possible.  
" Maybe Tobias could spy on Chapman and Tom and maybe find out if anything is going on," I said. Chapman is my friends' assistant principle and also one of the Yeerk leaders, Tom is Jake's brother and a very close friend of Visser 3, although they're both controllers so the Yeerk that controls them does those things.   
" I'll ask him," Jake replied " We will also have a meeting at Cassie's barn tomorrow."  
" Come on Ant, I'll give you a 2 player game," Marco said.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
" Right, we haven't had a meeting for a while so I called you all here to decide what we do next," Jake said.  
" Get on with our normal lives for a bit," Marco suggested. We were all in Cassie's barn next to her house. She and her dad run a wildlife rehabilitation clinic and the barn is where they keep all the injured animals they get. All around me in cages I saw all different types of birds, squirrels, a few skunks, horses and even a couple of wolves and many more types of animals. This is useful because we can acquire all different types of animals without having to go around and look for them. Also Cassie's mum works at a wildlife park which is also a theme park called The Gardens. Cassie loves animals, which is good because it would be hard to live the way she does if she didn't. It is also our secret meeting place because no one comes in often.  
" I'm not so sure we should do that, I think the Yeerks are up to something, and I want to know what. I asked for this meeting because I was wondering if it would be possible if Tobias could do a bit of spying on Chapman and Tom, with us helping along the way. Let's say Tobias spies on them outside and we spy on them in school and around Jake's house... if that's alright with Jake, of course," I said  
" It's fine with me" Jake answered  
Same here, Tobias said. I was asking Tobias because he is trapped in hawk morph, he stayed in morph over 2 hours which was too long and he lost his morphing power as well until the Ellimist gave it back to him.  
" Finally, something to do!" Rachel said. She is another member of our group. She has long blonde hair and a perfect face, she has brains, she's always in fashion and she's really strong and brave. If you saw her you would think, "oh she's going to be a model" but really she's a bit like some Amazon-queen-warrior, beautiful but also brave and strong. Sometimes she goes over the top with her braveness. Marco calls her Xena, Warrior Princess.  
" If Prince Jake says it's alright then it is fine with me. Alllllll ri ta, fi-ne." Ax was in human morph. In Andalite form he doesn't have a mouth, so when he's in human morph he finds mouth sounds amazing and likes to play with them. Cassie still hadn't said anything.   
" I thought I heard that The Sharing were going for a trip somewhere on a plane, but I'm not sure where, I might just have heard wrong," Cassie said  
" More reason for us to check it out then" Jake replied. The Sharing is meant to be a sort of boy/girl scouts but it's really an organisation for the Yeerks, probably all the Yeerks around here go because it's very popular and we know that Visser 3 makes regular visits there. Tom and Chapman go as well. My friends once went to a meeting and it all seemed normal until Jake morphed his dog Homer and spied on the meeting all the regulars have. He said that Tom had said that they had brought Jake and the others because they suspected they were the kids at the construction site the night they got the morphing power and they would either put a Yeerk in their heads, or kill them. Jake was obviously distraught at the thought of his brother wanting to kill him, but we knew it was the Yeerk in his head saying those things.  
" Can we go and eat Cinnamon buns now. Bun-zuh." Ax said. Ax's full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Now you see why we call him Ax.   
" I guess we could go to the Mall and buy some Cinnamon buns now, are you all coming?" Jake asked  
" We've got nothing better to do." Rachel answered. We waited for Tobias to morph to human and then we started walking towards the Mall.   
  
  
Tobias came back with the Cinnamon buns, one each, but Ax decided to take three of them, leaving Rachel and I without one.  
" Thanks for that Ax, I really enjoyed my Cinnamon bun"  
I said  
" Mmmm, that was yummy," Rachel joked.  
" I am sorry, but I thought you would get fat if you ate them" Ax said.  
" Um, Ax, to get fat you need to eat a lot more than just one Cinnamon bun," Cassie said  
" I know," Ax said, " I was attempting a human-like joke."  
" Uh-oh, Ax is trying to make jokes, bad jokes," Marco commented. In his Andalite body Ax doesn't have a mouth, so he doesn't have a sense of taste so when he's in human he's mad around food, he thinks Cinnamon buns are the best thing ever invented by humans.   
" I'll go and get two more," I said to Rachel.  
" Thanks."  
As I went to get the Cinnamon buns, I saw a familiar face. In fact, I've only seen him twice before, but I could still see who it was. It was Erek the Chee. The Chee are a race of Androids, partners of the now dead Pemalites. The Pemalites were so technologically ahead of us that when we were hairy apes, they were capable of faster-than-light speed. The Pemalites never fought or took a life. They decided to make their own pets, and so they made the Chee. The Pemalites were then invaded by the Howlers and they came to Earth with only a few Pemalites living. To carry on the Pemalites they put the Pemalites's spirit into wolves, and they made a new species, which are of course dogs. The Chee, in their normal body, are shaped a bit like dogs and made of some sort of metal or something like that. To walk around on Earth they project a hologram of a human around their body and they will now look like normal humans.   
"Hey, Erek, how's it going?" I asked  
" Fine," he replied " but I have important news, are the others with you?"  
" Just over there, I'll be with you in a minute." I went and got the Cinnamon buns and joined Erek and the others. I gave Rachel her bun.  
  
" Thanks" she said " Now remember Ax, these are mine and Anthony's"  
" Ant's, I like being called Ant, besides, it's shorter," I said. Erek smiled.  
" Let's get to business, shall we?" Jake asked " What news have you got for us, Erek?"  
" Well, you have not been on a mission lately, because the Yeerks have been concentrating on something very big. I don't know everything about it, but I'll tell you all I know. All the Sharing organisations in this area, and when I say this area I mean a very big area, are going on a trip somewhere, probably on planes. The Visser is getting very excited about it, he keeps saying it's the next big step into the invasion of Earth. I don't know where it is they're going, which is what you are going to have to find out," Erek answered. " Also, Visser 5 is supposed to be coming to help, so it must be big. Visser 5 is actually a close friend of Visser 1."   
We all looked at Marco, because Marco's mother is actually Visser 1, everyone thought Marco's mum was dead, until my friends saw her on one of the missions.  
Erek carried on. " So you must expect some rivalry between Visser 5 and Visser 3."  
" Do you know anything about where they're going?" Cassie asked  
" I have no idea, but it's probably a different country" Erek said  
" Is that all?" I asked  
" Yes," Erek said.   
We all said are goodbyes and finished our Cinnamon buns and started to walk home. I was staying at Marco's again.  
" So, are we still using the plan, do we start spying on them?" Rachel asked  
" Yes, I think we have to, we start tomorrow," Jake answered  
  
Later on at Marco's apartment we were talking about what Erek had said.  
" Where do you think they are going?" Marco asked me   
" I don't know, but I really, really hope it's not where I live."   
  
  
  
  
Chapter 3   
  
Before I carry on, you may want to know why I'm not using the names of countries and continents, and of course, it's because the Yeerks are among us. I can't give them one clue about where we all live, because they would be able to find us, there's no doubt about that, and that would be fatal. Anyway, Jake, Rachel (who is Jake's cousin) and I were all at Jake's house. Pretending to play on the Sega. I mean, we were playing on the Sega, but we were more occupied on listening and following Tom, nothing much had happened so far, but then the phone rang. Jake picked it up.  
" Hello?...Oh yeah, Tom's here, I'll just get him. Tom! Someone on the phone for you!"  
We all looked at Jake.  
"Look normal," he mouthed at us. Tom ran down the stairs and snatched the phone from Jake. He looked at us and shut the door so we had to walk up beside the door to hear anything of what he said.  
" Hello? Oh hi Chris ... yeah I know about the trip ... yep, I'm definitely coming ... a meeting in two days time at 7pm, I'll just note that down. Same place as usual? ... Yeah, I've got it. Ok, Bye."  
We quickly walked back into the other room. Tom opened the door.  
" Who was it Tom?" Jake's mum asked  
" Oh, just the leader of the Sharing, there's a meeting in two days time at 7pm about the trip I was telling you about earlier," Tom replied.  
" Ok."  
" Hey, there's something we're going to have to investigate," Rachel said  
" Definitely," Jake and I said at the same time.  
" So this Chris is the leader of the Sharing  
organisations is he?" Rachel asked.  
" No, he's the leader of the one Tom goes to, I've heard Tom speak about him before," Jake answered.  
" He may also be someone we could check out," I said. Jake and Rachel nodded. Tom walked into the room we were in and said  
" You guys really should join the Sharing, you know, especially you," He pointed at me, " you could make some new friends over here."  
" Yeah, maybe I will join someday, but I'm a bit busy at the moment and I don't get much time over here."  
" You should still join, we do some great things, go on excellent trips, you never know, we might go on a trip over to where you live and you could show us around." he said sneakily and then flicked a smile, but it wasn't a happy sort of smile, more of an evil, wicked smile. A shiver travelled down my spine. He went downstairs. We all looked at each other.  
" What was all that about?" Rachel asked  
" I don't know, but I certainly don't like it, how he said it, and that smile he sent me, it was so creepy," I replied  
" He's always saying stuff like that to me. Imagine what its like living with him," Jake said. We all looked downcast and no one said anything for a bit until Jake said,  
" Let's take Homer for a walk in the forest, maybe go up to Cassie's house and see if they're back yet."  
So we collected Homer and walked towards the forest. On the way we talked about normal things like soccer and basketball, and what movies were coming out and who was going to see them. Stuff like that. Trying to act like the normal people we were. I asked them what homework they'd done over the holidays. None. And do you know what I said? Same here.  
We had a walk through the forest chatting about what morph we would use to spy on the Sharing meeting.  
" Flies?" I suggested  
" Cockroach?" Rachel asked, "although they may be on the lookout for roaches after the last time we spied on a Sharing meeting in cockroach morph."  
" Marco and I have dog morphs," Jake said  
" Or maybe we could just use our birds of prey morph, I mean their eyesight is wonderful and their hearing is wonderful too," I suggested.  
" Let's ask the others and see what they think," Jake said. Jake is our leader although he never asked to be, but he's the most responsible of all of us, so we just decided he should be leader. When we had come back from our walk we went over to Cassie's house which is next to the forest. Rachel knocked. Cassie's mum opened the door.  
" Oh hi, do want to see Cassie?"  
" If that's possible," Jake said  
" Sure, I'll just get her." Cassie came to the door  
" Hi guys, I take it you want to know if anything happened with Chapman?" We all nodded. " Well I'll call Marco and I told Tobias and Ax to come to the barn at 2pm, so they should be here in 5 minutes," Jake, Rachel and I walked into the barn and waited for Cassie to come back. Cassie came back just after Tobias and Ax walked into the barn, both in human morph.  
" Marco will be here in a minute," Cassie confirmed.  
"Anything happen?" I asked  
" We learnt a bit, not much, but a bit," Tobias said, "what about you?" he asked  
"We have something quite big to tell you about" I said. Suddenly, we heard the noise of a bike being pedalled. It got closer and closer. Too close. Marco zoomed into the barn on his bike going very fast.  
" Look out!!!!!" He shouted at us. We all ran out the way. Marco slammed into a bale of hay and fell of the side of his bike and onto the hay. Rachel sniggered.  
" Nice one, Marco." Marco made a face at her. Rachel and Marco are always teasing each other and are the comedy of the group. They are always arguing about something which is why Rachel was very pleased about what Marco had just done.  
" Shut up Rachel. I was coming down the hill really fast and decided to see how long I could ride down the hill without braking. I guess I went down the hill too far without braking," Marco looked embarrassed.  
" Very stupid Marco, although because you are stupid I guess it's no different from what you usually do," Rachel said. Marco didn't have a wonderful comeback.  
" So now Marco's here... after an eventful entrance, I think we can start talking about what we found out today." Jake said  
" We'll go first." Cassie said, " At first nothing much happened until this guy arrived at Chapman's door and started telling him some details about the trip. We were in fly morph at the time so he didn't notice us. He said that the trip is next week on Wednesday, they will be leaving at 9am to catch the 10:30am plane. When they get there they will be staying for a week or so, he said if everything goes right then the 2 Vissers and some of their best lieutenants would stay a lot longer.  
" You don't know where they're going," I asked. Cassie shook her head.  
" So, what did you find out?" Marco asked me.  
" Well, Tom got a call from the leader of his Sharing organisation, Chris, and Chris told Tom that there will be a Sharing meeting in two days time at 7pm about the trip. Also I think we should keep an eye on this guy Chris. By the way, what was the name of the bloke who turned up at Chapman's?"  
" I am not sure, but I think it was Dave. Day- va," Ax said  
" Dave is the name of one of the assistant leaders at Tom's Sharing meetings." Jake pointed out.  
" We could check him out too," Marco said. Marco jumped on to a tall stack of hay. Ax tried to do the same. He missed and when he landed started swaying around and finally fell flat on his face.  
" I do not know how you humans stand on two legs without two other legs or a tail to support you." Ax said. In his Andalite form Ax looked like a mixture of a deer, a scorpion and a human. He stands on four legs and is shaped like a deer and he has fur but it is blue. He has a tail ended with a long, curved and a very sharp spike like a scorpion, which is their main weapon. He has four legs and two arms. He also has four eyes. Two eyes are in the same place as ours but the other two are very bizarre. They are attached onto two stalks, which means he can see behind him and to the sides. As Marco would say, they freak you out big time.   
" Are you alright?" Cassie asked, laughing.  
" I am fine," Ax replied " Although I would like it if I could return to my Andalite form, is this possible?"  
" Sure, my parents are out," Cassie said. So, Ax began to morph. It is always weird watching a human morph into an animal, but watching Ax morph back into an Andalite is even weirder. First blue fur began to grow from human skin, and then suddenly, two more legs sprouted from his chest, which made him fall forwards and onto four legs. A tail began to grow and when it was long enough a long, curved spike grew from it. The two stalk eyes grew from the top of his head and his mouth got smaller and smaller until it shrivelled into nothing. His whole body was now covered in blue fur. His two arms grew smaller and weaker and hooves began to grow instead of feet. An Andalite has three hearts so two more grew inside his body and the other things inside his body changed shape and moved around. You may think this would hurt, but Andalite technology has stopped it from hurting. Ax finished the last little changes and in front of us stood an Andalite.   
I am now fully Andalite, Ax said using thought-speech which is how we "speak" when we are in morph.  
" Ok, let's get back to business," Jake said " So, what do we do now?"  
" Well, let's look at the information we've got, first, we need to do something about this Sharing meeting coming up in a couple of days. Second, we know the trip is going to be next week and we know what the time will be when they go and we know how long most of them will be there for, all we need to know now is where they're going." Marco said  
" Well, how about we go to this meeting in some sort of morph, get inside, listen to what they say and then get the hell out of there." Rachel suggested  
" Sounds fine to me," I said  
" Ok, we do that, we all meet up here at 6:30pm on that night. But what morph do we use to get in to the meeting?" Jake said  
" We can't use cockroach, because they'll be on the lookout for them, no way we're morphing an ant, how about flies?" Cassie suggested. We all nodded.  
" Fly it is then. Ok, I'll see you all at 6:30 sharp," Jake said.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 4  
  
We were all at the barn. We were all quite nervous but not as nervous as we had been on missions we'd done before. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you how I became an Animorph. Well, I was visiting a friend who lives near to where the Animorphs live, and I was just walking down this road when I saw 5 kids sneaking down an alleyway and a bird fly down and land beside them. They went round a corner and, I don't know why, I guess I thought they looked like they were going to do something bad or something like that, I followed them. As I peeked round the corner I saw one of them but with huge compound eyes and wings! I shrieked and all of them saw me. I ran off but they managed to catch up. They looked really annoyed but one of them ( Cassie ) told them that it wasn't my fault and I couldn't of helped it if I was just to walk round the corner at that exact time. No one knew what to do about it and in the end Rachel asked if anyone had the blue box. Cassie had it. And so they had to make me an Animorph, although they were very reluctant to. They warned me that if I let anyone know about us or I was getting dangerous then they would have to destroy me. Well, Rachel said that. And now I guess I'm part of the team. Anyway, as I was saying, we were all nervous because the last time my friends spied on a Sharing meeting Visser 3 was there and the Yeerks found out that the 5 cockroaches they kept seeing were " the Andalite bandits." The Yeerks think we are a group of Andalites and it is going to stay that way. When the Yeerks found out it was my friends they got bug spray out and almost killed them.   
" Ok, let's get this over and done with," Rachel said. We all began to morph. Watching someone morph into a dog or something is bad enough, but watching someone morph into a fly is so much worse. And of course I happened to be facing Jake while he was morphing and unfortunately my last human feature to leave me was my eyes. First, I began to shrink. Smaller, smaller and smaller. One minute a bale of hay was just up to my knees and suddenly it was way above my head. Extra legs spurted out of my chest and tiny wings grew from my back, then, along came the fly mouth. The long, sucking, tongue thing came rolling out and I saw Jake's as well and I almost threw up, although it's quite hard to throw up while you're morphing. I thought the mouth was bad until I saw Jake's huge, bulging compound eyes burst out of his eye sockets. I almost screamed. When the morphing was finally done we started having fun.   
Wahoooooooooo!!!!!!!!   
Aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!  
Yeeeeehaaaaaaa!!!!!  
Turning into a fly is not fun. Being one is. The fly mind was easy to control and flying is like driving an indycar but ten times faster. When we'd finally got control of ourselves Tobias (who hadn't morphed a fly and was our backup in case something went wrong) helped us find our way to where the Sharing is held.   
Do you think we need more backups, maybe one more person in bird morph? Cassie asked.  
Well, Ant should go in because it's kind of his thing, I'm going in, Rachel won't want to be backup, maybe Ax should go in because they might start talking about stuff we don't understand so... Marco? Cassie? Jake asked reluctantly.  
No way is Rachel going in and I'm not, Marco said, so it has to be Cassie.   
Oh man, do I have to? Cassie replied  
Come on Cassie no one's going to call you a chicken or anything, Rachel said.   
Oh all right then, Cassie said heavily. The rest of us headed off towards where the meeting was to be held.  
Buck! Buck! Marco of course. When we got there Marco asked,  
Hey, I've got a stupid question. How exactly do we get in?   
I hadn't thought about that, I replied.  
Well, to get in, there has to be a door or something, so we wait till someone gets here, then follow them and get in the way they do. Rachel said.   
There might be an unauthorised life-form detector thing or something, I said  
I am not sure if the Yeerks would use that in one of these Sharing meetings, Ax told us.  
Ok, we do that then. We waited before the first person arrived, it was Chris, and just behind him was Chapman. As Chapman went in we followed him through the door. For a while Chapman and Chris talked about the flights and how long it would take to get there and when they would land, stuff like that. The only thing was they didn't say was where they were going, and I was bursting to know, just in case... well, you know what I mean. Finally, others started to arrive, including Tom and Dave. When everyone was there the room was very crowded and to try and not get noticed we had to squash up right against the wall. When everyone was there Chris, Chapman and Dave started telling everyone the details about the trip. They would meet up here, take a bus to the airport and have the flight on a Boeing 747, especially arranged by Visser 3. They would stay at the Manderville hotel. And they still wouldn't say where they were going. I got so annoyed that I said,  
Would you just tell us where the hell you are going!   
Of course I didn't say it out aloud to everyone there, just to our little group.  
Calm down Ant, we'll find out soon enough, Jake said.   
After that they went on with a list of names of who would stay and who wouldn't if the trip went successfully. Tom wouldn't stay, he would come back. Jake was relieved.   
I was on a wall just behind a man's head when he suddenly stepped back and almost squashed me. I flew off.  
Aaaagggghhhh!   
The others all reacted.  
What happened?!   
Are you all right?!   
Before I could answer, someone swatted me and missed by millimetres  
Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!   
The others then flew over to help me, but then they all started to get swatted as well.   
" What's going on over there?" Chapman asked.  
" There seem to be a large amount of flies in this room." a controller replied.  
" Well get them! They could be the Andalite bandits in morph!"   
Then everyone started to swat us.  
Ahhhhhh!   
Woooooaaaaaahhhhhh!   
Look out!   
Behind you!   
It was chaos. Us flying round the room like mad things with everyone swatting us, it was panic mania! Then Rachel was hit  
Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh, someone hit me!!!!   
Rachel!   
Rachel fell to the floor, and just as someone was about to stamp on her, Chapman shouted,  
" Let it morph back! We will take this Andalite to Visser 3!"  
So someone picked her up and took her to Chapman.  
Tobias! Cassie! If you can hear me the Yeerks have got Rachel and she may be dead and if you don't help us we will be too!" I called out with desperate hope.  
I --- hardly hear---! But --- coming to ---!   
We were almost out of range for thought-speech but I hoped that last word was help. The others and I avoided being swatted for a while but we were getting tired. I got so slow that I thought all hope of us escaping was gone, until...   
" Tseeeeeeeeer!!!"   
Tobias and Cassie came flying in by smashing through a window. Tobias went for Chapman and sunk his talons into the arm holding Rachel. Chapman cried out in pain and dropped Rachel. After Cassie had struck another man's arm and head she went and picked up Rachel and flew out with Rachel in her beak. Meanwhile Tobias hit arms and heads and even struck eyes with his deadly talons which enabled us to escape through the open window before anyone hit us.  
" Get that bird!" Chapman screamed and men and women started hitting out at Tobias. Tobias tried to escape through the broken window but some people blocked it off. Tobias was trapped!  
" Never mind, we shall take this Andalite to see Visser 3 instead," Chapman sniggered. I stayed by the sharing meeting in fly morph to see what they did with Tobias.  
Tobias, are you all right?   
Yeah, fine, but what do I do now? I can't escape. I may have to let them take me, since I don't have a 2-hour time limit.   
That may be your only choice, because we can't get through either, but we can see where they take you. I'll stay here and listen to what they say.   
Okay.   
" How do we get him to the Visser?" a controller asked.   
" Do you surrender Andalite?" Chapman asked  
Yes, but I will not return to my Andalite form.   
" Why?"  
Tobias didn't answer.   
They waited while someone went to get a birdcage, which luckily someone had at home. When he back Tobias was stuffed into the cage and Chapman said,  
" I will keep him at my house for the next two nights, and then take him to Visser 3 before we go on the trip."  
I have that, Tobias, I reassured him. Tobias was put into Chapman's car and he was driven off. I left feeling bad that I hadn't tried to save him. I told the others about what I had learnt and we went off our own ways. I was staying at Marco's. So on the way to his house we talked about what we thought we should do.  
" Shall we save him tomorrow or the next day or wait and do it just before they go on the trip?" Marco asked  
" We will try and save him tomorrow, but I'm not sure how we're going to do it," I replied  
" What's Tobias going to do? Chapman will realise that he is stuck as a hawk and doesn't have to morph to an Andalite as Chapman would expect and that will be bad for us."   
I thought about this for a bit.  
"Well, when you think about it, it's not really that bad. If he doesn't already know that Tobias is stuck, which he may, then when he finds out, he'll just realise that he's stuck, but what he won't know, is that he can morph. It's not really anything bad. But we need to get him out of there."  
Otherwise...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 5  
  
The next day was Tuesday. Just one day to go. At 10am I flew to Cassie's barn. Jake says we're not aloud to morph to fly to the barn or morph for personal reasons, just to decrease the risk of us being seen. But we were in a lot of trouble and I kept thinking whether or not this trip was going to where I live. I knew the chances but it still scared me. And there is just nothing better than flying. It's great to just ride huge thermals and letting the warm air push you up hundreds of metres above the ground where people look like small dots below you.   
Anyway, I got to Cassie's barn and luckily Jake wasn't there, in fact, no one but Cassie was there. And because no one ever does fly to the barn Cassie was surprised when a Red Kite, which is my bird of prey morph landed just in front of her.  
" Waaaahhhhhh!"  
It's only me, it's Ant, don't you recognise me?   
" No, I haven't seen you in that morph much, only once I think."  
What do you think of it?   
" It's a Kite isn't it?"  
A Red Kite, to be exact, not the best one out of our lot, probably the worst, but it'll do.   
" Oh no, this bird is really nice actually, I'd like to be in that morph. He's quite fast, agile, a very good hunter and their quite rare, I'd say they're one of the best in our group"   
Not as large as Rachel's eagle and not as fast as Jake's peregrine falcon though.   
" Yeah, it still doesn't matter though." She paused for a bit " Morph back" she said. " Jake might see you."  
He's not that strict though, is he?   
" If he's in a bad mood." Then she laughed, " No of course he's not, but morph back anyway."  
So I did. First I began to get bigger. This time the bales of hay went from being the same size as me to a lot smaller than me. Then feathers starting being sucked in and human skin came through. Not a very nice sight. Then my excellent vision faded and I went back to normal vision. My beak shrunk and shrunk until it became my mouth and I now had a human tongue so I could speak. My wings got longer but thinner and then the feathers disappeared leaving my human arms. My deadly talons turned to toes and legs were formed. I could feel bones crunching around and my insides grew or got smaller and moved around. I couldn't believe that it didn't hurt. I had an itchy feeling as teeth grew in my mouth. Finally the last few feathers were sucked in and I was fully human. I helped Cassie clear out a couple of the animals' cages and then Marco got there.  
" Alwite evewybody," He said in this stupid voice that I had taught him.  
" Yeah, fine." I said sarcastically. " Cleaning out a cage of squirrel poop really does make my day."  
" I'm sure it does," Marco said " And Cassie, I see you still really have got a taste in fashion, I love the brown smudges all over your top,"   
" Yeah, do you like them?"  
" They're great. Rachel will approve"  
We all laughed. But I wasn't really in the mood for laughing.  
" So Ant, this is your party, what are we doing?" Marco asked. I was a bit annoyed about him saying that it was my responsibility, I'm not into the leader stuff. But I knew what we were going to do now.  
" Save Tobias," I said defiantly.  
" Ok, how do we do that then?"  
I had been thinking about this for a while, and still wasn't really sure. So I told them my only idea that might just work. With a bit of luck, anyway.  
" Well, all I can think of at the moment is that we go as bird-of-prey morph, hopefully, a door or window will be open, fly in and rescue Tobias and fly out again."  
I could tell by Marco and Cassie's faces that they weren't impressed.  
" That's... umm... not much of a plan is it?" Cassie remarked.  
" Well can you think of anything better! Can you?" I snapped. Cassie looked offended. Marco just smirked.  
" I'm sorry I snapped, ok, it's just I don't like being leader, thinking of all the plans and stuff like that. I'm just not that sort of person." I said.  
" I know how you feel," Cassie said. Marco just gave me a look that said "what a baby, can't even be responsible for the group a couple of times. Can't even make decisions for himself."   
So I just gave him my worst scowl. Unfortunately he didn't burst into tears.   
" Well it's all I can think of," I said  
" Let's see what Jake says."  
So we waited until the others turned up. When they finally got there we got down to business.  
" So what are we doing then?" Rachel asked. And I told them my plan. Again, they weren't impressed.  
" It's all I can think of," I confessed.  
" It would be easier to go as flies or cockroaches" Marco suggested.  
" Duh Marco, how are we supposed to get Tobias out of that stupid cage then?" Rachel said. Marco looked kind of embarrassed.  
" I think we'll have to go as bird and hope for a bit of luck," Jake said.  
So off we went. Rachel in Eagle morph, Jake in Peregrine Falcon morph, Cassie and Marco went Osprey, Ax went in his Northern Harrier morph and I used my Red Kite morph. On the way I realised there was something that we hadn't thought about.  
How exactly are we are we going to stay for a week in... well wherever the Sharing are going, I asked everyone. There was silence.  
I mean we're not exactly going to be able to go up to our parents and say: " Mum, Dad, can I go to a different country on a plane which I haven't booked, so I'll have to turn into a fly so that no one will notice me. And when I get to this different country I will stay for a week. So I can follow a bunch of alien parasites that plan to take over this country, and then save it by turning into dangerous animals and fighting them all off and then come home for some tea. Can I? Oh mummy please let me!" I said with a little laugh. That got a few giggles out of everybody. When Jake had stopped laughing he said,  
I guess we'll have to tell our parents that we're going out all day and will be back around 7pm each night and hope that they don't get suspicious.   
No, get the Chee to cover for us! Cassie said.  
Great idea, I'll ask them tomorrow.  
So we flew over to Chapman's house, also one of Rachel's best friends, Melissa. We learnt, that Chapman, the real Chapman let the Yeerk control his body if his daughter Melissa would be spared. So far the Yeerks have kept that promise. Probably the only one they ever have.   
When we got there I was hoping there would at least be a window open or something, but guess what? There wasn't. Not a single thing was open. We knew they were in the house, we could here them.  
" Daddy, can't we open a window or the patio door, it's boiling hot?" Melissa asked her "father".   
" Do you think it's hot darling? I find it quite cold, I'll tell you what, I'll turn off the heating."  
" Okay," Melissa sighed.   
It was actually a hot 22 degrees centigrade outside. I expect he was on the lookout for us and just to make sure Tobias couldn't get out of the house. A good move on Chapman's part.  
So what do we do now? Rachel asked exasperatedly.  
No one answered. No one knew what to do. Then, that bit of luck that I was hoping for came along.  
" The heating is off Melissa," Chapman called.  
" It's still to hot." She muttered. And finally walked over to the kitchen window and opened it. Yes!  
Move! Jake shouted. And we speeded towards the window and through it. Melissa started screaming as I thought-spoke to Tobias.  
Where are you Tobias? I didn't even know if he could hear me. There was no reply. He probably wasn't downstairs anyway.  
Upstairs!!! I screamed. We all flew upstairs while Melissa unfortunately started calling for her Daddy.   
" Daddy! Help me!"  
" What is it darling!"   
" Some big birds are flying upstairs!"  
Just as she said that I flew past him and I heard him hiss.  
" Andalite!" And he tried to hit me. Fortunately, he missed and I scratched his arm. This gave the others time to pass Chapman.  
Tobias, where are you?! I called in desperate hope.  
I'm in a room. He replied.  
Where else would you be, in the toilet! I calmed down a bit. More explanation please   
Actually I am in the toilet, well, not actually in the toilet, but in the room with the toilet in it.   
Okay, we're coming to get you. Oh, and Tobias?   
Yeah?   
Shut up.   
Sure thing.   
I looked around. It was quite a large landing, and had 4 rooms to choose from.  
To the toilet! I said.  
Which room is that? Rachel asked. Chapman gave her the answer. Stupidly, Chapman went and stood in front of a door. In other words, guarding it.  
Duh Chapman. I guess it's that one Marco said, stating the obvious. So we flew off towards where Chapman was standing.  
" No! No! You won't come away with your Andalite friend this time! Never!  
If you don't move out the way, then I will use this creature's useful weapons to claw your eyes out. A blind host won't be much use, will it? Jake told Chapman.  
Chapman still stood there. So we all flew at him. He stood there for as long as he possibly could but as Jake was just about to strike he dived out the way.  
" Noooo!"  
Luckily, the door handle wasn't one of those round ones that you have to turn, it was just a straight one which you push down on. Jake landed on it and then put all his weight on the edge of it. The door finally opened and in there was a birdcage with Tobias in it. I used my beak to undo the hatch and Tobias was finally free. He flew out of the cage. We were just about to fly out of the room when Chapman shut the door and locked it. We were trapped. We flew up to the windows. Locked. There was no other way out. Unless you're an Animorph, of course.  
What do we do now? Marco asked.  
Easy. I said simply.  
What?   
Well, we should have a morph small enough to crawl between the gap between the bottom of the door and the carpet. Would a cockroach be too big? I asked Cassie.  
Well, the gap isn't very big because this carpet is quite thick, so it probably is too big. All that really leaves us is, well... The ant. She said.  
The others all shuddered at the thought of going ant. I hadn't been an ant. But I had acquired one when I found one in the garden and I decided it might become useful. They all shuddered because when they had been an ant, a long time ago. The ant mind was very powerful. Well, they told me that the ant wasn't an I. It didn't really have it's own body. All it was, was a part of one big colony of ants. It was ordered to get food for the colony, it got it. The colony pretty much controlled the ant. It wasn't a whole insect, just a tiny part of the colony. It's hard to explain.  
An ant? Do we have to? Marco whined.  
If you want to get out of here then yes, we do. Rachel said.  
Easy for you to say Xena. I've never been one. I wish I'd never acquired one now. I told her.  
You babies. Come on, let's do it!   
I hate it when you say that Rachel. You always say it just before we go on some terrible, life-risking mission. Marco said.  
Come on, its only Chapman   
Can we, you know, get back to business now? Jake asked, he seems to get headaches when Marco and Rachel start babbling along and when he tries to get them back to business, he always fails.  
Come on, its only Chapman Marco mimicked Rachel in a stupid voice. He's a Yeerk! He's Visser 3's top assistant for hell's sake!   
So?   
Marco just stared his angry Osprey eyes at her.  
I give up.   
Helloooooo? Jake said, still trying to get us back to business.  
You always give up when I'm the challenger, Marco. Rachel 1, Marco 0. Rachel told Marco.  
If you don't shut up I'll morph Gorilla and squash you and then it would be, Rachel 1, Marco 10.   
Then I'd morph elephant and squash you. Rachel 100, Marco 10.   
Would you two just shut up! Jake shouted.  
Everyone stopped, and turned to stare at Jake, you see, he never shouts.  
What was I supposed to do, I kept telling you to be quiet. Jake told Marco and Rachel. Now, do we morph ants or not? I say we should.   
So do I, responsibility-boy Marco said. We all agreed to morph into ants to get out. I wasn't looking forward to it.  
Then, Melissa ran upstairs shouting,  
" Dad, where are those birds?" She asked.  
" Oh, they flew out of the window." Chapman replied. Someone went downstairs.  
" I'm going to have a bath." Melissa said to herself.   
She tried to open the door.   
" Who locked the door?" She asked herself again. She unlocked it and opened the door.  
Go! We flew out of the bathroom.  
"Ahhhhhh!" Melissa screamed.  
We flew downstairs out of the window, which fortunately Chapman hadn't shut. We got out of there just as we heard Chapman shout,  
"NOOOOOO!"  
Well, we actually kind of won one. We found out a lot from the Sharing meeting and we managed to save Tobias without having any trouble. I told the others happily.  
I found out even more. Tobias said quietly.   
What do you mean? Jake asked.  
I heard Chapman say where they were going, on the phone in the room next to the one I was in. He replied.  
So where are they going then? I asked him.  
You really, really don't want to know, Ant.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 6  
  
On the way back to the barn no one said a thing. Not a thing. No one could really believe it, especially me. It was just my luck that my country was second in line for the Yeerks. We finally got to the barn and I morphed back to my human shape.  
" So tomorrow do we get on the plane with them, or swim?" Jake asked quietly. All the others looked at me and I just shrugged.  
We swim. Tobias said. Ant and me will show you the way.   
" Ok then, I'll see you all here at 8:30 in the morning, so get some sleep." Jake told us.  
We all left the barn but instead of going to Marco's place I went towards the Mall.  
" Where are you going, Ant?" Marco asked.  
" The Mall. Going to spend some of my birthday money. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago."  
" Do you want me to come with you?"  
" Nah, I'll be all right."  
So Marco went off and as I was walking towards the Mall, I noticed Rachel ahead of me. I didn't really want her to notice me but she heard me.  
" Hi Ant, going to the Mall?"  
" Yeah, I want to spend my birthday money"  
" How about I help you? Show you where the sales and bargains are." She asked. Rachel is shopping mad. She loves doing it and she seems to just know when the sales are and where the bargains are. So I decided to say yes, because I'll probably be able to get a lot out of my money. " Are you worried?" She asked me.  
" Well, let's see. A bunch of parasitic slugs that are invading earth and have already taken over half of the biggest country in the world, are now coming to invade my country, which is about a millionth of the size of the biggest country in the world. Coming with them are millions of blade monsters and huge slimy worms. So, when I think about it, yeah, I'm worried." I laughed. " Is my life weird? Oh yes, definitely."   
Now when I say blade monsters and huge worms I mean Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Hork-Bajir are very tall, about 2 metres, have snake-like heads with long necks, but the thing you really notice about them are the blades. They have blades on their wrists, knees, arms, legs and deadly claws on their feet with one huge claw. Like a velociraptor's. But we learnt that the blades are used to cut tree bark off trees for food. Despite their fearsome appearance, they are meant to be a kind species. But now every single Hork-Bajir has a Yeerk in its head. They are the shock troops for the Yeerks.   
And when I say huge slimy worms I mean the Taxxons. Each of them has a Yeerk in its head but they chose to be enslaved by the Yeerks. They are the Yeerks allies. They are pretty big, they're actually about as wide as a large tree trunk. They're quite tall, a bit taller than we are. They have this huge round mouth which they use to eat not just some type of alien food, but when another Taxxon is badly injured, the immense hunger inside them forces them to feed on the injured Taxxon, while it's still alive. They have tiny arms with tiny claws on them, and it's the same for their legs. And they are soft, very soft. A large man, running at a Taxxon quite fast, would pop the Taxxon as soon as the man ran into it. Not the loveliest of aliens.  
" So what do you want to buy, a Playstation game?" Rachel asked me.  
" Well, do you want the long version or the short version?"  
" Long version"  
" Okay. Yes I do"  
Rachel looked at me like I was weird or something.  
" What was the short version then?"  
" Yes."  
Rachel nodded slowly.  
"Ooookay. Well, I know that Game has a sale on."  
" I didn't think games shops really had sales."  
" Well, they happen rarely. How much have you got?" She asked.  
" Around $50." I answered. " And I definitely want Spyro The Dragon 2."  
" Well, I think Spyro 2 is $45 normally, and if it's a 20% off sale, then the price would be..." Rachel was thinking hard.  
" It would be $36." I told her.  
" Thanks. So with about $15 left over you could get a decent second-hand game as well." She told me.  
In the end I bought Spyro 2, and Tekken 3 second-hand.  
On the way to The Gap where Rachel wanted to buy a new pair of jeans, I asked her " How do you know about all the sales and where they are. I mean, do you go to every shop every day and ask when their next sale will be or something?"  
Rachel pointed to her forehead " It's all up there." she replied.  
Simple enough answer, I guess.   
" You should buy Cassie a pair, she could use hers as swimming shorts." I told Rachel as she was picking out her jeans.  
" I know, I've been trying to get her to buy some for ages, but she just won't listen."  
Suddenly, I heard a commotion outside. People shouting and kids screaming. Rachel looked at me, alarmed, and we both ran outside to see what was wrong. We got out of the shop to see three men, all with guns, in a large bank. They were telling everyone in the bank and near it to get down on the ground.  
" Wrong way!" I hissed to Rachel. We ran right to the back of the shop. We looked at each other.  
" Morphin' time?" I asked Rachel.  
She grinned. " Let's do it!"  
We made sure no one was looking and each went into one of the changing rooms.  
" Hey Rachel, how are we meant to morph in here? I mean, you'll have to go elephant and I'll have to go rhino because our tough skin will protect us from guns shots." I called to her through the wall.  
" I guess we'll have to morph not just in the changing room, but through it." She told me. Great.  
And so, I began to change.   
First, my skin began to change from soft pink skin, to very hard, very thick skin, grey skin. It was so thick it was like wearing armour. I grew larger, much larger. Too large for the changing room.  
CRASH!  
The changing room door was smashed of its hinges and the walls began to crack. My fingers withered away leaving only the fingernails that became bigger and larger. My legs got shorter but a lot thicker. I fell forward onto all fours and most of my body was now rhino except for my face. My face began to stretch out. The bones inside my head began to grow and became thicker. My ears moved and changed to become open tubes. Finally, the horns began to emerge from the back end of my huge face. The larger horn nearer the front of my face began to grow and grow and grow. And then a smaller one, nearer the back of my face grew and then suddenly stopped. Both horns then became larger and thicker. My eyesight was dim and pretty much useless. But I could just see what was right in front of me.  
Then the rhino mind formed beneath my own. It wasn't scared and it wasn't violent. It just wanted to graze. It was calm. But when there's a human boy, who is nervous and aggressive with you, you get aggressive too. I knew what that horn was for. And I wanted to use it.  
Rachel was also done. We stepped out of the changing rooms. But they weren't really changing rooms anymore, they were really a pile of ruins.  
We walked calmly out of the shop and straight up to the three men. People started screaming again.  
" Ahhhhh!"  
" I-I-It's a rhino!"  
" And an elephant!"  
The men still hadn't seen us.  
" Shut up! What're ya talkin' about?"  
" B-b-behind you!" A scared woman called out.  
" Huh?"  
I decided to get their attention. I "tapped" one of them on the back with my head. He turned and stared at Rachel and me.  
"Ahhhhhh!"  
I swung my head and knocked him flying. The two other men turned and when they saw us, as well as screaming, they got their guns out and pointed them at us. I just charged straight at them.  
BANG! BANG!  
I felt something, I felt two things get stuck in my thick skin. The bullets. But my skin was so thick that the bullets hadn't got to my insides. Just as they were about to shoot me again, Rachel trumpeted and charged straight at them as well.   
"Ahhh!" One of the men yelped. That man turned on Rachel, and while the other guy was distracted, I slammed my horns onto his back and he also went flying. He slammed straight into a wall and was knocked unconscious, but not dead.  
Yes!   
Meanwhile, Rachel had wrapped her trunk round her man and squeezed him tightly, making him drop his gun. She then proceeded to throw him all the way into the glass exit doors. He was dazed, obviously, but when he was able, he ran off out of the doors yammering like a baby. But we hadn't finished off the first guy yet.  
BANG! BANG!  
He missed by inches. By now the security guards were ganging up on him, and the people in the bank, instead of running away, decided to just stare at us. Although, I probably would've done as well. I mean, it was a weird sight, a rhino and an elephant saving them from three bank robbers with guns. The security guards finally managed to get them to leave. The man wouldn't give up. But when he saw Rachel and me charging at him again, he'd had enough.  
"Okay! Here's my gun! Stop! Stop running at me! STOP!"  
And to his complete amazement we stopped running at him, and walked back towards The Gap. We quickly "hid" behind the ruins of the changing rooms and quickly morphed back. When everyone was distracted we sneaked out off the Mall.   
" Well, that was fun." Rachel said.  
" Personally, I think we were lucky that no one followed us back into The Gap." I told her.  
" They were probably too surprised."  
" Hey, I wonder what happened to the guy who ran out?"  
Rachel was pointing to my left. " That."  
I turned to see three security guards handcuffing him and telling him his rights.  
" I think we did a pretty good job then. No one was hurt and the baddies were caught." We exchanged high fives.  
"Well, thanks for helping me get the games, I'm off to Marco's to play them. Come round with me if you want." I said to Rachel.  
" I can't, you see, my mum's got this court case and I've got to look after Jordan and Sara."  
" No problem, I'll see you tomorrow then."  
" Yeah, see you."  
I walked to Marco's a little happier than I was about an hour ago.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 7  
  
"Ant! Ant! Wake up! We're going to be late!"  
I woke up to the sound of Marco shouting at me. I looked at the clock. 8:15am. I looked at Marco. He still wore his nightshirt.  
" Man! We overslept!" I shouted.  
" It was lucky I woke up when I did."  
We got dressed as quickly as possible and had some toast.  
" Dad! We're going out now! We'll be back in a couple of hours, Ok!" Marco called to his dad who was lying in. Erek and his friend were coming to cover for us at around 10am.  
" Yeah, yeah." He replied, too tired to care.  
We ran as fast as we could over to Cassie's barn. It was 8:50am by the time we got there and we were totally puffed out.  
" I-I-I'm sorry we're late." I managed to puff out. I was about to give a better excuse for being late when Marco said, " Yeah, sorry, we overslept."  
" You what! I thought you might've at least had a decent excuse!" Rachel shouted, outraged.  
" Nice one, Marco." I muttered.  
" I can't believe you did that! You're over twenty minutes late!  
Didn't you set your alarm or something!"  
I was about to say that Marco's dad had turned it off when Marco piped up with " We forgot. We were too interested in Ant's new Playstation games."  
Rachel had almost lost it by now. I gave Marco a look that said shut the hell up. So much for that idea. " Oh come on, they were good games." Marco protested. Rachel popped. She growled, ran straight at Marco and slammed into him. The others all winced and turned away.  
" Stop. Annoying. Me. You stupid, little idiot!" She screamed at him. She was probably going to beat him up so Jake did the right thing, by pulling her away from him.  
" Hey, come on Rachel, he's sorry, ok? It was an accident." Rachel pulled away from Marco and just fumed. Marco got up, looking embarrassed, surprised and hurt all at the same time.  
" Man, I'm sorry Rachel, Ok?" She just stared at him. We let Rachel calm down a bit and then go on.  
" We'd better get going, we've lost enough time already." Jake said.  
" And we all know why." Rachel commented. This time she looked at me.  
" Right, now we can't walk all the way over to the beach, I think we'll have to fly. How about Seagull?" We all nodded.  
We morphed seagull and as soon as we got in the air we started pointing out all the food we could see. You see, seagulls are scavengers.  
Hey, that's half a packet of crisps on the curb!   
Chocolate!   
Look at the rubbish bin behind Burger King!   
You may think, ok, so just because you're seagulls it doesn't mean you'll act like one. Well it does. You get the gull's mind with you, and we kind of let it take control sometimes.   
Just as I thought we'd stopped pointing out food Ax shouts,   
Look! Look! There's half a cinnamon bun down there!   
Luckily, my friends don't live far from the coast, so it only took us just over an hour to get to the coast. But it was half past ten already. And Jake was in one of his grumpy moods. Well, knowing our luck the Yeerks will be there by now. Anyway, where was it their staying?   
The Manderville. I know where it is. When I'm going to get Ant I like to fly over the big cities. You know, get some good thermals and see what's going on. Tobias said.  
Well, that's a bit of luck at least. Jake commented.  
We were now on the coast. We landed smoothly on a beach full of seagulls so we certainly didn't look out of place. But we did while we morphed back. The sea was a little choppy, but it didn't matter, because we were going to morph an animal that didn't care if the sea was very choppy or very peaceful. We were going to morph a dolphin. I'd only morphed the dolphin once, and I loved it. To a dolphin, life is just a big game. No worries, no enemies (except sharks,) no work. Just a big, fun, game. But before I got to that stage, I would have to morph first.  
The first change was my face. It suddenly just bulged out! A bit like the rhino's, but a lot further. My face was completely normal except for the fact that I had a huge bottlenose sticking out of it. Then my skin began to change; it turned grey and rubbery. It was also quite tough.   
I could then feel the dorsal fin grow on my back, coming further and further out of my spine. My hands and legs were shrivelling and then two flat flippers replaced my arms, and I was standing on small, human legs.  
I suddenly realised that all the others were still human and they were all staring at me. I stopped morphing and looked at them.  
" Err, Ant? Your morphing on land, you won't be able to get to the sea in full dolphin morph." Marco voiced their concerns.  
" Oh. Duh." I said simply. It was amazing but I managed to walk into the sea on those tiny little legs. My legs vanished and I fell face first into the water. My tail was also complete. I was now fully dolphin. I waited for the dolphin mind. I felt the dolphins' presence and I was suddenly happy. I didn't have a care in the world. It was very powerful.  
Come on guys! Finish morphing! I want to play! Hey, Marco! I'll give you a race!   
Marco had also finished morphing. Yeah, Ok!   
Marco and I swam out into deeper water and started racing round in circles.  
I'm winning!   
No way! I'm winning!   
Hey, wait for me!   
And me! Rachel and Cassie had finished morphing as well. We raced around for a bit before Jake intervened Guys, we do have a mission to do here. By now the Yeerks could be obtaining hundreds of controllers. That stopped me in my tracks. Jake's right. Let's quit playing around. Tobias? You ready?   
I sure am, let's do it.   
Tobias and I raced up front and headed towards home. My home.   
We'd been in morph about an hour when we saw a ship travelling the same way as us.  
Let's take a lift, Tobias said.  
So far, so good, Rachel commented.  
I cannot believe you just said that, Rachel, Marco said in despair.  
You wimp.   
Well something's going to go wrong now isn't it?   
We got on the ship, you may be wondering how. Well, it took a while. We morphed back to our normal forms which was hard because I kept choking on water and then I started becoming overcome by huge waves. I then morphed seagull, which meant more choking and my wings were wet. Which made it quite hard to get out of the water, but not too hard, because seagulls land in the sea all the time. By the time we had got out of the water, the ship was quite a way away. So we had to fly for twenty minutes to get to the ship and land. We then had to morph back to human and hide at the back of the ship behind a load of cardboard boxes. It was also freezing cold. I was completely shattered. It turned out that this ship was heading straight to where we were going. Tobias found that out by flying round the ship and reading the captains' log. More luck. Everything was going quite well. But something was nagging me. Something has to go wrong soon, it's gone too well. But Rachel seemed confident enough. "Anything going wrong, Marco?"  
" Just wait."  
And we did, we sat there for about half an hour before something finally went wrong. We were sitting there discussing the rest of our plan, when two men came to check the boxes. We tried to hide, but we were pretty obvious.  
" Hey! Who's there! Come over here Dan, I'm sure I saw some kids behind that box."  
That was when it got bad. We started running in between boxes trying to get away from them. I turned a corner and ran straight into one of them.  
" Aaaaahhhhh!"  
" Oi, stop!"  
I also slammed into Jake.  
"Ouch! Hey Jake, what's the plan?"  
" Run."   
" Good plan."  
We ran round like mad idiots for about five minutes before Marco, being Marco, jumped on top of one of the crates and started jumping onto the next one.  
" Hey guys, up here!"  
We all climbed onto the top of a crate with the two blokes right on our heels. From up there we could see our escape route. It was quite a way away. We had to jump over quite a few crates to get there. We then had to jump off the crates, which was quite a way down.  
" A jump this high would be easy for an Andalite, but you humans only have two legs, which makes you very unstable. Un, unstay-bal. Bal. Stay-bal." Ax commented.  
" Who cares! Just jump!"   
We jumped and all managed to land safely, even Ax. We then ran through an open door into a room with about six large men drinking tea in it. Funnily enough, they noticed us.  
" Stop right there!"  
" Not likely." I muttered. Then they all started chasing us as well. We were going to get caught unless... " There! A door!"  
We zoomed through the door and hid behind a sofa.  
" Morph!" Jake screamed. I quickly morphed to seagull and when the others were ready we flew out. No one noticed, no one even knew we'd gone into that room. We flew outside and off the ship. We decided to fly for a while. After a while of flying we actually saw land.  
Well, Ant, you're going to be home soon, and you're early for tea.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 8  
  
" This is insane. You don't really mean more flying? I'm so tired I could fall asleep on Rachel, and to fall asleep on Rachel, I'd have to be very tired," Marco complained. We ignored him as usual.   
We had morphed back to human in some dunes by the coast and we were now sitting on the sand. I had joked about finally finding a beach with sand instead of pebbles around where I live.   
While Marco had been complaining, we were talking about where we were going to stay, and we decided that we'd have to stay at the Manderville. But we didn't know where to get the money from, until Rachel made up a very weird and unselfish plan.  
" Hey guys, do any of you have a bank account with some money in it?" She asked us. Marco was the only one.  
" How much? You see, we could share money from mine and yours to stay in the Manderville."  
" I have $5 in mine."   
" Great, we're really going to be able to afford it, it's gonna cost me all of the money in my bank account."  
"You have your own money? When we Andalites used money, which was a long time ago according to my history teacher, we could just get money out of a machine, and we didn't have to work for it, we just had a limit of how much money we could have." Ax commented, " In fact, the point I'm coming to here, is I could get money straight from a computer which has the use of... what do you humans call it, the... intabnet?"   
" The Internet!" I screamed, " Is it really possible Ax?" I was excited.   
Ax was in human morph, and he has learnt quite a few facial expressions. So he smirked and said, " Of course, with my technological knowledge and superiority I can fulfil any of your desires."  
We all stared at him. Then Marco said, " Right, thanks Ax. Anyway, how do we get to a computer with the Internet?"  
" We could go to my place." I suggested.  
" What if your Mum's not out?"  
" She usually is, and if she isn't, I know loads of other places with the Internet."  
So we flew off again. We found out where the Manderville was on the way. The Yeerks weren't there yet, well, they probably weren't there, because I had a look in the dining hall and I couldn't see anyone I recognised.  
Maybe their flight was delayed, Marco commented.  
Yeah, Visser 3 probably threw the flight attendant out the window he was so annoyed. Rachel said. We all laughed.  
We carried on our flight. We finally got to the town I live in, and flew to my house. When we got there, I looked through the window. No one was in the lounge; no one was in the dining room. Then, I looked through the kitchen window. I saw them. I swear I almost said, hi Mum, hi Melanie! . Melanie's my little sister. I found my brother, Luke, in my room, playing Metal Gear Solid. I went round the back, to get a closer look in the kitchen. I wanted to see the calendar. I looked at today.  
Yes! I screamed to no one in particular.  
What is it? Jake asked.  
Well, Ax, what's the time? Ax has the ability to tell the time in his head.  
It is 12:51.   
Good. That means that Luke is going to his best friend Matthew's house at one, and Mum and Melanie are going to an N.C.T meeting at the same time.   
Where's your Dad?   
Where do you think? At work.   
We waited around for a bit before they finally left. My mum walked out. Hey, what is your mum wearing? It looks good, I wonder if they have it in my size? And also, your mum's hair would look great if the fringe was a little longer and at the back... She'd finally noticed that we'd all stopped and were staring at her. Okay, I'll shut up now.  
  
  
  
  
This computer is taking a long time to load up the Intedet, Ax commented. He's used to having computers which can load up the Internet in about 1 second. Mine takes about half a minute.  
" He said that to me. You just can't please him, can you?" Marco said with a smile.  
" Hey Ax, this is one of the fastest around, anyway, it's the Internet, not the Intedet," I told him.   
We were all in my dining room, standing round my computer. We were all in are normal human forms, except for Ax, who was in his normal Andalite form. The Internet loaded up on BT Freeserve. I changed it to Yahoo, to get bigger choice of what we needed. Ax told us he needed to get into one of those companies that make money, package it, and send it to wherever. I wasn't really sure how to find anything, but I tried mint works and stuff like that. I even tried moneymakers at one point. You try going on the Internet and typing in moneymakers. You won't believe how many sites there are. Most of the sites would just be companies asking you to join them because they make loads of money and you'll get paid lots. Anyway, we tried a few more times, and we finally found a factory that made money. Ax then typed in this huge code and it came up with a screen that said " type in amount of money." Ax completely guessed and typed in £2000. We asked him whether it was stealing and he said it wasn't because we needed it to save the World and then he came up with some huge, scientific explanation about how it works. I didn't care. I only cared for the fact that 10 £100 notes came out of the disk drive.   
" Hey Ax, tell me how to do that on my computer when we get home," Marco said.  
We were all hungry so I raided the cupboards and gave everyone a Twix. I also turned on the TV and Jerry Springer was on. As usual two blokes were swearing at each-other over a woman. It got really bad and we got interested. One of them even threw a punch.  
" Now this is what telly's all about!" Marco exclaimed.  
The show finally finished and I realised we had wasted half an hour. Oh, and one more thing. My mum was back.  
I saw her through the window and I told them all to hide and morph to seagull, and when no one was looking quickly fly out the front door.   
The door opened and she went quickly through to the kitchen, telling Luke to shut the door behind him. We all zoomed of the house, except for Marco. He chose to hide behind the front door as my mum came in. The door smashed against him and left him dazed. Luke was gonna shut the door. I wondered if Luke would know if I were thought-speaking. Would he believe it was normal speech? I had to try. My friends all knew about Luke's friend George, who would prefer an apple to a Galaxy bar. So I let this comment slip, Hey Luke! It's George! I'm shouting at you from the end of the road! I can't get too far away from my beloved fruit! I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come round and try the new type of citrus fruits that Tesco's have brought out. It had to work. Luke turned around, "Huh?" He walked up to the end of the driveway and looked around.   
Yes! It worked! Marco? Marco, get out now! Ha! Ha! Ha! I knew that George joke would come in handy someday! Brilliant! Yes! I screamed.  
Ok Ant, it was funny, but you can calm down now, Marco's not out yet, he's still dazed.   
I calmed down a bit, Ok, Marco, get out now! Now! Luke's coming back!   
Err...ok, I'm...err... coming. A seagull with a damaged wing waddled out of the door. Luke was coming back. Marco just stood there for a bit while the others and I flew and landed on the top of a fence. Luckily, Luke ignored Marco, and went inside.   
Marco finally got back to his senses and flew off, with the money tightly held in Ax's beak.   
There was more flying to get to the Manderville. When we got to the hotel, I realised something.  
Err, guys? We've only got our morphing suits to wear at the hotel. You see, we can't morph baggy clothes or shoes. If we do, they'll end up in tatters. We have to wear really thin shirts, and bike shorts or something. We could not wear them to have a sophisticated meal with a bunch of posh guests in suits and long dresses.  
Well, the Manderville I've heard is quite cheap, so we'll have some money left over to buy some clothes.   
We needed a place to demorph. So we had to hide in a skip and change back. As you can guess, we got out and we were dirty and smelly and our clothes were covered in rubbish. So we tried to make ourselves look as clean as possible, and Ax collected the money from the rubbish and went to find out how much staying at the Manderville cost.  
With his brilliant eyesight, Tobias looked through a window and found out how much it cost for either two rooms with three beds, or one room with six. Ax didn't need a bed. Andalites have their own way of sleeping.  
The rooms cost pretty much the same, but the room with six beds had satellite TV, so Marco and Rachel insisted that we had that room, although it would be hard to get undressed for bed without being embarrassed.   
We then went out to buy clothes. People pointed and stared at us, but we tried to ignore them. Except for Rachel, that is. A couple of boys a bit younger than her walked past us, one of them sniggered and pointed, and the other made a supposedly funny comment, " Look, some pigs have escaped from the farm and have been rolling round in the skips!" How hilarious. Rachel didn't take it very well, " You'd better shut up or I'll do something you might regret, you stupid idiots!" At this point their mother came along and was in hearing range. The boys told their mother that Rachel had been horrible to them for no reason. The mother gave Rachel a disapproving look and told her to leave her sons alone and go back to the skip she lived in, she also asked Rachel to say sorry to her sons. Rachel told her that she wasn't going to apologise a couple of slimy, scheming, little sods. The mother walked off fuming. Rachel had a sneaky smile on her face.  
So we went shopping, one of Rachel's favourite hobbies. Rachel and Cassie bought expensive dresses and high-heeled shoes while Rachel made us buy nice long sleeved shirts, school trousers and black, school shoes. Oh yeah, and a tie. Rachel said we could wear whatever we wanted at breakfast and lunch, but at dinner we had to look sophisticated and well mannered. So for breakfast and lunch we just bought some casual clothes and trainers. We still had enough money to rent out a video, and because our room also had a VCR, we got out Saving Private Ryan.   
We got into our room, which was pure luxury, got changed and went downstairs for dinner. When we got down we found out that Chapman hadn't come because he had the flu. We found that out by over hearing a couple of controllers talking. We got into the dinner hall. The tables were set out as two, huge buffet tables. I sat down next to Jake, waiting to see who would sit next to me. A few minutes later, a number of controllers walked into the room including Visser 3. The tables began to fill up and Visser 3 was looking for a place to sit. He saw the empty chair next to me and walked towards it. He sat down next to me, looking very cheerful. He looked at me and said, " Hello, my name's Victor Trent," he stuck out a hand and said, "pleased to meet you."   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 9  
  
I sat bewildered for a minute. But he kept his hand there, so, while trying not to shake, I shook his hand and said, "Uh, umm, h-h-hi."  
"What's you're name?"  
I couldn't tell him my real name. So I made one up, unsuccessfully. " Umm, my name is... Giles... Danbury. That's it, Giles Danbury."  
He looked at me weirdly for a bit, and then told me his plan for taking over this country, literally. " Well, hello Giles, nice to meet you. Now, you look like a boy who'd love to come to the Sharing." A cold chill travelled down my spine. "The Sharing is a group for any ages where people get together, have fun, you know, bonfires on the beach, game nights, sports, cinema trips, that sort of thing. About a year after you've joined you get the chance to become a full member, where you get to do more important things, like help your community, and...well, it will change you're life completely."   
At this point I looked around at the others. Marco was of course, sniggering, at my nervousness, Cassie looked worried, Rachel kept mouthing messages to me like, "get some information," or "press him." Yeah, right, I'm really going to do that. Tobias... well, he'd been a hawk for such a long time he doesn't really know how to show facial expressions anymore, Ax had a look of pure hatred on his face, because the Visser killed his brother and Jake, well, he was scared out of his wits because he thought I might leak something about being an Animorph.   
" We're based in another country, but we've come here to tell other people what we're doing, and tomorrow we're having a huge get together with all the people who have heard of what we've been doing over there. Then, those people are going to start their own Sharing meetings, getting all their friends to come. Soon, hopefully, there'll be hundreds of The Sharing clubs all over this country. I was wondering if you and your friends would like to come tomorrow night?" I looked round at my friends who were all nodding, " Umm...sure, we'll come, where is it?" He told us where it was taking place and then turned to talk to a fellow controller. I finished breakfast and went back to our room. When Marco came up he started annoying me. Laughing, he said, "Ant looked like he'd just seen Ax refusing to eat chocolate!"  
  
Later that day Marco and I were watching The Fast Show, "Me? The fifth Duke of Winchester? Sleeping with my best friend's wife? When he's downstairs? Surely not?"  
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Marco and I laughed. Cassie and Rachel didn't think it was so funny, "I can't see what's so funny about this programme, it's basically people saying and doing stupid things," Rachel commented. "Yeah, it's just boring," Cassie said.   
"You must be joking, it's great!" Marco argued. I agreed with him.   
"It doesn't matter if it's funny or not, we've got to work out what to do tomorrow," Jake said.   
"Yeah, well at least we actually watch comedies," Marco said quietly to Jake.  
"What was that?" Jake asked sharply.  
"Nothing, nothing."  
"We've got to sort out what to do tomorrow, I think we should just raid the place before the meeting starts," Jake said.  
"That's not like you Jake, your plans are normally more cautious or... boring," Marco commented.  
" Shut it," Jake snapped.  
"I must admit, it seems like the only thing to do, raid the place, ruin it, and then run off." Cassie remarked.  
"I like it!" Rachel said with a grin.  
"Ok, we'll have a vote."  
"I'm in," Rachel said instantly.  
Same here, Tobias said.  
Are you sure that that isn't what the Yeerks want? Ax asked us.  
"Huh?"  
"What?"  
Oh, it does not matter, it's just...well...Oh, nothing. Ax said.  
Everyone looked at Ax strangely for a minute and then carried on.   
We all agreed to this, and we were all quite happy about it, but there was a nagging in the back of my mind, Ax had said something about the Yeerks wanting this. But I couldn't be bothered to worry, so I just put it aside and forgot about it. Little did I know that if I had voiced my worries, our mission could've been made a lot easier.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 10  
  
That day we sat around watching TV until about 4pm. We ate dinner and watched more TV until 5:30pm when we decided to get ready for the meeting at 6pm. We decided that we were going to morph birds, fly to the meeting, find a secluded spot, morph back and then morph to combat morphs. I was looking forward to using my combat morph because I'd only used once before. Jake's combat morph is a deadly tiger, Rachel has the most powerful combat morph of us all, a huge, powerful Grizzly Bear. Cassie has a Wolf, Marco has a Gorilla with fists that can send pile-driver punches and knock anything flat, Tobias does have a Hork-Bajir morph but he prefers to stay in his Hawk morph and use his sharp talons. And I have...a Leopard. A Leopard has brilliant speed, sharp claws, deadly teeth and is one of the most dangerous predators alive. And Ax? An Andalite's tail is so dangerous it can chop any Hork-Bajir into many pieces. In other words, he will stay in his Andalite form.   
5:30 finally came around.   
"Let's go, morph to birds," Jake told us. We morphed and flew out of the open window. It took us about 15 minutes to get to our destination. When we got there we realised lots of people were already there, and I mean lots. There were thousands of people here, and more were coming. The place was just about big enough to fit them all in. I saw Chapman and a couple of other guys at the front, no Visser 3, or Victor Trent. And no Hork-Bajir- a good thing. We found an ally near to the meeting, where we demorphed and got ready to morph into our more dangerous animals.   
"Okay, here's the plan," Jake said before we morphed. "We wait a couple of minutes and then just when the meeting is about to start, we run in there and wreak havoc. Not too hard, eh? Try not to hurt anyone, and your main target is any of the Yeerks you recognise."  
Rachel grinned, "Let's do it."  
I began to morph. For once I didn't begin to shrink first. A sort of fur started to grow all over my body, bright orange and black in colour. My nose bulged out while the rest of my face sucked in a little, my eyes became a little bigger and my ears changed shape. I was shrinking at the same time. I began to grow claws on my hands and feet, and soon enough I fell onto all fours. I was all Leopard apart from the tail, well, I didn't actually have one. A couple of seconds later my tail finally grew and I was one of the most dangerous animals in the World. I felt complete power. I was graceful, very fast, I had sharp, deadly claws and my mind was calm. Not like a mouse, which is always scared out of it's wits, but very calm. I was a predator, but not a mad killer.   
Everyone had morphed. We were ready.  
Ax, how long before the meeting starts? Jake asked.  
About five of your minutes.  
Jake sort of nodded with his Tiger head. Okay, tell me when three minutes is up.  
We waited. I was tense, nervous, the adrenaline was pumping up, I was ready for a good fight.  
Three minutes have passed, Prince Jake, Ax informed Jake.  
Okay, let's do it. Remember our plan. Three, two, one, GO!!!  
We all rushed out of the ally and ran straight into the meeting place. As soon as we got in there, Jake and I roared. Obviously, we scared the hell out of everyone. Rachel started to throw chairs about and smash her huge fists into walls and tables.  
You know, Jake. We made a little mistake, we should've gone in as Rhino's and Elephants, I said.  
Your right. But what if Hork-Bajir came along? I think these morphs would be more useful. And it's very likely that there are some Hork-Bajir around here. And he's probably here too.  
When Jake said "He", he was talking about Visser 3. I suddenly remembered something Erek had said at the Mall.   
Visser 5 is here as well, you know, I told everyone.  
Huh? Marco obviously didn't remember.  
Erek said Visser 5 was going to be here as well, and that he didn't like Visser 3 that much, I told him as I threw a table out of a hole in the wall.  
That fact may help us, said Cassie.  
I found Chapman cowering against a wall. I told Marco to pick him up and throw him lightly against the wall opposite. Marco threw him lightly, but he still knocked him unconscious. Marco then stuck his fist through the wall.   
As me and Jake couldn't really throw people against walls or cause damage to walls, we made sure we scared all the innocent people away. Cassie went back down that ally and morphed to Elephant. We were still making chaos when I suddenly heard Marco shout, Look, it's Him! I looked at Marco, he was looking straight ahead of me. I turned. He was there. We started chasing him, he ran into a small building to his right.   
Let's go! Shouted Jake.  
We ran into the building, it was a church, to be exact. The door slammed behind us. It was pitch black. Suddenly, the lights turned on. I looked around. All around the church were Hork-Bajir, about 50 of them. And in the centre, standing there, was an Andalite. But this was no normal Andalite. It looked just like an Andalite, but it felt different. You could feel and sense the evil coming from him. It was him, Visser 3.  
Oh look. It's the Andalite bandits, everyone. The Visser sneered. Why don't you come and join us for tea and crumpets!!!   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 11  
  
Visser 3 laughed. You fell right into my trap. Although part of our plan was to have this huge meeting, it was mainly a plan to trap you here! We knew you would come, somehow you seem to always know about our plans, but that will stop soon enough. Now, you have a choice. You can either surrender, and have the pleasure of one of my best lieutenants controlling you, or, you can die fighting my best warriors. What's it to be?  
I'm not surrendering to a piece of crap like that, let's die fighting. Rachel said, determined.   
Tobias nodded his Hawk head, I agree.  
Are you sure there's no way out of this? Marco asked. I don't want to become a Controller, noooo way. But, if I die, I won't be able to save my Mum, and Dad will fall apart.  
I don't think there's a way out of this one, Marco. Jake told him sadly.  
Marco sighed, Okay, let's do it.  
Jake roared. Attack, He said calmly. And we attacked. I ran straight up to the closest Hork-Bajir and leaped onto him, and bit into his neck with my deadly jaws. I sunk my claws into his stomach. He was dead. Suddenly 4 Hork-Bajir jumped on me, blades slashing, feet with huge claws flying. I managed to throw one of them off me, and I bit into another, but the other two were injuring me badly. WHAM! Marco punched a Hork-Bajir. He went flying. He picked the other one up and and threw him straight at one going to attack Rachel.   
Thanks, Marco, I told him. Just then another Hork-Bajir slashed at my stomach, ripping a hole in it. I saw Rachel, ploughing through Hork-Bajir, but getting hurt at the same time. Cassie, her Wolf morph was suffering badly. Jake looked okay,  
until 5 Hork-Bajir jumped onto him. I tried to help him, but three Hork-Bajir had me pinned. I suddenly realised that they weren't hurting me, just pinning me. I couldn't move, I was helpless. But they weren't taking advantage. It was the same with the others, apart from Rachel, who was still going. Finally she was knocked down, too badly injured to do any more.   
The Visser's thought speech suddenly boomed across the room.  
I have decided not to kill you, I would prefer it if you were Controllers.  
No! Cassie screamed. But we couldn't do anything, I was nearly dead. We could've demorphed, but that would have given up our cover as Andalite's. 5 Hork-Bajir picked me up. They took us to a cell, where they told us we had 5 minutes before the Visser would come to get us. We didn't know what to do. Another Hork-Bajir came along and he had a talk with our guard, he wasn't looking, so we quickly demorphed to Human. We were about to morph to a fly or something when the Hork-Bajir came back.  
The Visser actually came along an hour later. He said some preparations had gone wrong. He came up to us. Why are you in those stupid human morphs of yours? No one answered. WHY! He shouted. He stood there for 5 minutes screaming at us to demorph. A Hork-Bajir came along and whispered something in the Visser's ear. Ahhhh, of course. You want to stay in your human morphs so you will be stuck in that morph and not able to change to anything else. He turned to a Hork-Bajir, HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN IN MORPH!!!!   
The Hork-Bajir answered in a weird mixture of Hork-Bajir and English. About an hour? That gives us plenty of time.   
Then, another Hork-Bajir walked calmly up to the Visser and in pure English said, "Well, Visser. From your last report I heard that there are seven Andalite bandits, there appears to be six here." I looked around us. Marco, Jake, Cassie, Rachel and Tobias. That was it. NO AX!   
Visser 3 became nervous. Visser 5, have you let one of them escape to embarrass me?!   
"Why of course not," the Hork-Bajir said, "I only counted six of them in the church as well. It appears as though one of the bandits has not fallen for your plan."  
Aaaarrggghhh!!!! Well, let's make these pieces of scum Controllers first, and then get rid of the other one.   
The Visser told the Hork-Bajir to stay where they were. He then got some humans with Dracon Beams. Visser 3 then morphed to Victor Trent, and they escorted us outside. I looked up at the sky while I was outside, I was sure I sure a Northern Harrier in the air, but it was probably my imagination. We were taken into another small building, and in it, was a Yeerk pool. I may have already said this, but just to remind you. A Yeerk has to go to a Yeerk pool every three days, where they come out of there hosts, and soak up Kandrona Rays in the pool. If they don't soak up Kandrona rays, they'll die. After they've been in the pool, they go back into their hosts, and go home like nothing has happened.   
I was standing just in front of Cassie. She leaned over and whispered to me, "Oh my god, they have a Yeerk pool down here! They're going to make us controllers!"   
I couldn't bare the thought of it. Not being able to do anything. The Yeerk, reading my mind, controlling me. I wouldn't be able to do anything. I kept thinking in my mind over and over again "there's got to be some way out of this mess!" but I knew there wasn't. We were helpless.   
There weren't many people in the pool, a few humans, but mostly Hork-Bajir, and they appeared to have their Dracon Beams pointed at us. The building looked a bit of a mess, shattered windows, walls with graffiti all over them, crumbled walls and the ceiling looked as though it was about to fall in on us.  
They began to take us to one of two walkways to the pool. One, where the Yeerk drops out of your head and into the pool, and two, when the Yeerk goes back into your head. Obviously, we all went to the second one. As I walked there, I prayed. I go to Church and everything, and it may not be the most exciting thing in the World, but I like to think of myself as a Christian. I asked for help, some sort of miracle. We needed one.   
We got onto the walkway, Marco was first in line. I couldn't believe it had come to this. A Hork-Bajir roughly grabbed Marco's head and stuffed his ear into the pool. Marco screamed but we couldn't do anything.   
The Yeerk was a third of the way into his ear when suddenly our miracle came. A Northern Harrier flew straight into a cracked window and smashed through it. Shards of glass fell to the floor. Dracon Beams fired and missed by inches. Ax dived down towards Marco at top speed, grabbed the Yeerk from his ear, then let it fall onto the dirty floor. GO! Ax screamed. But it was still hopeless, if we'd have moved, we would've been fried in a tenth of a second. But then, Ax flew over to an unsuspecting Taxxon, and grabbed a Dracon Beam from it's "hands". He sped over to us, and dropped the Dracon Beam towards Rachel. QUICK, SHOOT THE CEILING! Ax screamed in our heads. Rachel caught the weapon, and before anyone could do anything, she put the weapon on the highest level, and shot the ceiling over and over again. Holes were blown in the ceiling, and a few seconds before it all fell in on us, Rachel shot the wooden door, and we ran out. The only problem was, we were followed by a few Hork-Bajir, Visser 5 and Visser 3. We got out a few seconds before then, which gave us time to hide. Jake told us to morph. I changed into the Leopard again, and we ran out and attacked. There were 6 Hork-Bajir over all. One of them ran straight towards me. I leaped onto him, and dug my claws into his stomach. I then bit my sharp teeth into his neck and he was quickly dead. We quickly took care of the other Hork-Bajir leaving us with the two Vissers.   
How can this be happening!? The Visser raged.   
Do we run or attack? I asked Jake.  
We should attack, he's defenceless. This could be our chance! Rachel said excitedly.   
But then, the two Vissers pulled two Dracon Beams out each, all set on the highest level.   
Move any closer, and we shoot. Visser 5 said calmly.  
I don't think we should risk it, Jake said, We have completed our mission, let's just get home, and anyway, four Dracon Beams on the highest setting, an Andalite tail and a Hork-Bajir's blades, we don't really want to go against that.  
So we ran. The Vissers didn't shoot. Maybe they were just scared we would attack them, maybe they were surprised we hadn't attacked, or maybe they weren't contempt with us being dead.   
******************  
We got home. Finally. I was completely shattered. As we approached Marco's house Erek met us outside, he said that Marco's dad hadn't suspected anything. We got in, and walked straight upstairs. I fell straight onto the bed, and fell asleep. Marco talked about how close he came to becoming a Controller the next morning, and that he would have to thank Ax for saving him from a fate worse than death.   
We had done what we went there do, and I was ecstatic that my country wasn't under attack, yet. I was also pleased about surviving.   
A couple of weeks later, I left for home. When I got there everyone was asking things like "what did you do?" and "what exciting things did you and your friends get up to?" I knew in my mind I'd done things that they could only dream about, but I didn't say that. Instead, my reply was; "Oh, nothing really."  
  
  
Author's Notes  
This fan fic took me over a year to right, and it was finished before Animorphs 30 (as I live in England, we're only on 29 over here), so some of it may need updating. If anyone wants a sequel, please tell me. Please review my story!!!! Coolio Santos  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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